Case studies of damage to 19‐storey irregular steel moment‐frame buildings under near‐source ground motion

This paper describes the three‐dimensional nonlinear analysis of six 19‐storey steel moment‐frame buildings, designed per the 1997 Uniform Building Code, under strong ground motion records from near‐source earthquakes with magnitudes in the range of 6.7–7.3. Three of these buildings possess a reentrant corner irregularity, while the remaining three possess a torsional plan irregularity. The records create drift demands of the order of 0.05 and plastic rotation demands of the order of 4–5% of a radian in the buildings with reentrant corners. These values point to performance at or near ‘Collapse Prevention’. Twisting in the torsionally sensitive buildings causes the plastic rotations on the moment frame on one face of the building (4–5% of a radian) to be as high as twice of that on the opposite face (2–3% of a radian). The asymmetric yield pattern implies a lower redundancy in the lateral force‐resisting system as the failure of the heavily loaded frame could result in a total loss of resistance to torsion. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New global positioning system reference station in Brazil

Co-located very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) and global positioning system (GPS) reference stations were installed near Fortaleza, Brazil, in 1993. Both have been important in the realization and maintenance of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame. A new-generation GPS system was installed in 2005 to replace the original station. Experience gained in the prior 12 years was used to improve the design of the GPS antenna mount. Preliminary indications are greatly improved data quality from the new station. Simultaneous observations from the nearly half-year of overlapping operation have been used to determine the local tie between the new and old GPS reference points to about 1 mm accuracy. This can be used to update the 1993 survey tie between the original GPS and the VLBI points, although there are questions about the accuracy of that measurement based on a comparison with space geodetic data. A test of removing the conical radome over the old GPS antenna indicates that it has biased the station height by about 16 mm downward, which probably accounts for most of the previous survey discrepancy.     

Aftershock collapse vulnerability assessment of reinforced concrete frame structures

In a seismically active region, structures may be subjected to multiple earthquakes, due to mainshock–aftershock phenomena or other sequences, leaving no time for repair or retrofit between the events. This study quantifies the aftershock vulnerability of four modern ductile reinforced concrete (RC) framed buildings in California by conducting incremental dynamic analysis of nonlinear MDOF analytical models. Based on the nonlinear dynamic analysis results, collapse and damage fragility curves are generated for intact and damaged buildings. If the building is not severely damaged in the mainshock, its collapse capacity is unaffected in the aftershock. However, if the building is extensively damaged in the mainshock, there is a significant reduction in its collapse capacity in the aftershock. For example, if an RC frame experiences 4% or more interstory drift in the mainshock, the median capacity to resist aftershock shaking is reduced by about 40%. The study also evaluates the effectiveness of different measures of physical damage observed in the mainshock‐damaged buildings for predicting the reduction in collapse capacity of the damaged building in subsequent aftershocks. These physical damage indicators for the building are chosen such that they quantify the qualitative red tagging (unsafe for occupation) criteria employed in post‐earthquake evaluation of RC frames. The results indicated that damage indicators related to the drift experienced by the damaged building best predicted the reduced aftershock collapse capacities for these ductile structures. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Correlation studies on an RC frame shaking-table specimen

This paper presents the correlation of the results of a new model for the dynamic analysis of reinforced concrete (RC) frames with the experimental time history of a two storey RC frame shaking-table specimen. The frame member model consists of separate subelements that describe the deformations due to flexure, shear and bond slip in RC structural elements. The subelements are combined by superposition of flexibility matrices to form the frame element. A non-linear solution method which accounts for the unbalance of internal forces between different subelements during a given load increment is used with the model. The ability of the proposed model to describe the dynamic response of frame structures under earthquake excitations is evaluated by comparing the analytical results with experimental evidence from a two-storey, one bay reinforced concrete frame tested on the shaking-table. The model parameters for the shaking-table specimen are derived from available experimental evidence and first principles of reinforced concrete. The effect of reinforcing bar slip on the local and global dynamic response of the test structure is assessed. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Anomalous harmonics in the spectra of GPS position estimates

Prior studies of the power spectra of GPS position time series have found pervasive seasonal signals against a power-law background of flicker noise plus white noise. Dong et al. (2002) estimated that less than half the observed GPS seasonal power can be explained by redistributions of geophysical fluid mass loads. Much of the residual variation is probably caused by unidentified GPS technique errors and analysis artifacts. Among possible mechanisms, Penna and Stewart (2003) have shown how unmodeled analysis errors at tidal frequencies (near 12- and 24-hour periods) can be aliased to longer periods very efficiently. Signals near fortnightly, semiannual, and annual periods are expected to be most seriously affected. We have examined spectra for the 167 sites of the International GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) Service (IGS) network having more than 200 weekly measurements during 1996.0–2006.0. The non-linear residuals of the weekly IGS solutions that were included in ITRF2005, the latest version of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF), have been used. To improve the detection of common-mode signals, the normalized spectra of all sites have been stacked, then boxcar smoothed for each local north (N), east (E), and height (H) component. The stacked, smoothed spectra are very similar for all three components. Peaks are evident at harmonics of about 1 cycle per year (cpy) up to at least 6 cpy, but the peaks are not all at strictly 1.0 cpy intervals. Based on the 6th harmonic of the N spectrum, which is among the sharpest and largest, and assuming a linear overtone model, then a common fundamental of 1.040 ± 0.008 cpy can explain all peaks well, together with the expected annual and semiannual signals. A flicker noise power-law continuum describes the background spectrum down to periods of a few months, after which the residuals become whiter. Similar sub-seasonal tones are not apparent in the residuals of available satellite laser ranging (SLR) and very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) sites, which are both an order of magnitude less numerous and dominated by white noise. There is weak evidence for a few isolated peaks near 1 cpy harmonics in the spectra of geophysical loadings, but these are much noisier than for GPS positions. Alternative explanations related to the GPS technique are suggested by the close coincidence of the period of the 1.040 cpy frequency, about 351.2 days, to the “GPS year”; i.e., the interval required for the constellation to repeat its inertial orientation with respect to the sun. This could indicate that the harmonics are a type of systematic error related to the satellite orbits. Mechanisms could involve orbit modeling defects or aliasing of site-dependent positioning biases modulated by the varying satellite geometry.     

Non-linear seismic analysis of base-isolated RC frame structures

In this paper, seismic analysis of plane RC frame structures with High Damping Rubber Bearings (HDRBs) base-isolation systems is performed in the non linear range. For RC members, a modified version of hysteretic Park model is used. For HDRB isolators, a new hysteretic model is presented, which is able to accurately predict the mechanical response in the large strain range. The dynamic equilibrium equations are solved making use, at each time step, of a block iterative Newton–Raphson scheme: the frame is divided into superelements (beams and columns) with master nodes at the extremities and internal local nodes for the computation of relations between end moments and relative rotations at superelement extremities. The effectiveness of HDRB base-isolation systems to reduce inelastic deformations in the RC superstructures is investigated through some numerical examples. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nonlinear pushover analysis of infilled concrete frames

Six reinforced concrete frames with or without masonry infills were constructed and tested under horizontal cyclic loads. All six frames had identical details in which the transverse reinforcement in columns was provided by rectangular hoops that did not meet current ACI specifications for ductile frames. For comparison purposes, the columns in three of these frames were jacketed by carbon-fiber-reinforced-polymer （CFRP） sheets to avoid possible shear failure. A nonlinear pushover analysis, in which the force-deformation relationships of individual elements were developed based on ACI 318, FEMA 356, and Chen＇s model, was carried out for these frames and compared to test results. Both the failure mechanisms and impact of infills on the behaviors of these frames were examined in the study. Conclusions from the present analysis provide structural engineers with valuable information for evaluation and design of infilled concrete frame building structures.     

Transient response in steel moment frames caused by brittle connection fracture

Brittle fractures occurring at the beam–column connections of welded steel moment frames, such as those observed following the M_w 6.7 1994 Northridge earthquake, result in sudden decreases in connection strength and stiffness. These changes lead to various types of transient dynamic behavior at the local and global levels. The effects on global acceleration include highly transient, high‐frequency waveforms that occur immediately following fracture and decay quickly. The theoretical basis for the occurrence of these transient waveforms is examined and their presence in structural analysis results is demonstrated. Results from shaking table experiments on a simple steel moment frame with fracturing connections show that transient accelerations are consistently observed following fracture. These experiments and analyses show that, due to their short duration, the transient acceleration waveforms do not cause any sudden changes in the global lateral displacement response of typical building structures. Therefore, these global acceleration transients have relatively benign effects on overall system behavior despite their relatively large amplitudes. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

剪力墙结构、框架填充墙结构模型模拟地震试验研究

对三种结构体系的模型，即钢筋混凝土剪力培结构、钢筋混凝土框架砖填充壤结构和钢框架混凝土填充墙结构模型，进行了地震模拟振动台试验研究．三种结构的模型均为４层，１／３几何比例，整体尺寸相同，按静力等强度原则进行设计。利用５ｍ×５ｍ液压振动台逐渐增大输入地震的峰值加速度直至模型破坏，在试验过程中测量并比较三种模型在弹性和开裂等状态时加速度、位移、应变的反应情况，并用微幅激振测定模型在相应状态下动力特性的变化，从而综合比较和研究它们的地震反应、破坏机理和抗震能力。     

钢筋混凝土耗能支撑框架结构的震害预测

首先介绍了一种新的震害预测方法——基于模糊概率的震害预测模型。在分析了钢筋混凝土框架结构抗震性能以及摩擦耗能支撑框架结构在地震作用下力学性能的基础上，提出用结构层间屈服强度系数、层间剪切位移角和地震损伤指数这三个指标作为其主要震害影响评价因子。同时，利用所提出的预测方法，建立了钢筋混凝土耗能支撑框架结构房屋的震害预测模型。